Newsletter - November 2008

Hi, and how was your Halloween?

Last night, we thought our cat was walking across the terrace heading for the patio, but no, it was a young opossum. Even though we turned on the outside lights to observe, he or she (how does one tell?) wasn't bothered and continued to eat the tiny fallen crab apples from the patio surface and drink from the plant saucers. Very cute.

As a landscape designer, a big part of my job is to accurately measure a property. These figures are transferred to scale on velum, so the property owner has an exact mapping of his area. An average backyard may take 45 minutes while a front garden is often completed within a half hour. Sometimes though, I have jobs that take me to country property and the measuring time will increase due to the size and complexity of an area.

About a month ago I began a project of two and a half acres in Loomis. The land is neither flat nor open. It is covered with oak trees and large outcroppings of exposed bedrock that range in size from a toy chest to a city bus, so I'm measuring from tree to rock to out building to tree to rock etc. It is very time consuming. Then there are the animals - pigs and sheep. I know my job is spent outside some of the time, but that doesn't mean I'm in any way a "country girl". I found the pigs especially intimidating and it took me until the third visit to courageously measure inside their very large enclosure. I must tell you though that I cheated and took a five-pound bag of little red potatoes with me. Every time the pigs came near, I threw potatoes to another section of the field. The sheep was jealous as I had nothing for him to munch, but I discovered that he didn't like it when I waved my arms to shoo him away. That really worked.

The funniest experience though was on my first visit. The client gave me the entry code for the mechanical wrought iron gate. I opened it successfully, drove my car through, then punched in the code to close the gate behind me and (I thought) prevent their dog from leaving the premises. I also take dog biscuits with me everywhere for dogs that don't know me. We usually get along fine after a few treats. So I measured until I was thoroughly confused with oaks and rocks and went to leave, but the gate didn't open for me. There was no electronic eye to automatically give me an exit. So I thought a minute and decided to climb the gate. I'm only 58 and the gate is only seven feet tall. I got to the other side and realized I didn't have the entry code. So I climbed back over to get the code, then climbed over a third time to open the gate. Was that a senior moment, or what? My family certainly thinks so. Turns out, the dog is trained to never leave the property. So now when I visit there, the gate stays open.

In the garden, I've removed the begonias for container color and switched to cyclamen. The cyclamen colors are brilliant and the plants will bloom off and all until spring. They take morning sun, or filtered sunlight and prefer a well-drained, peat-rich soil, though I've had good luck in clay. The mistake beginners make with cyclamen is planting them too deeply. These are a type of bulb and the top for the bulb should sit exposed above the soil. They really can't handle water covering their crowns. If done properly, cyclamen will repeat bloom for many years.

In the vegetable garden, radishes, onions, lettuce and snow peas are making an appearance. I'm worried about the potatoes. I washed them well before cutting them apart for planting, but I'm afraid they were treated to prevent sprouting and may not grow. I wonder if I still have time to try nursery potatoes.

It hasn't been cold enough for the Japanese maple to start dropping leaves, but the grapes and almond are almost bare. My mother's fruitless mulberry has enough leaves falling to keep me busy for the rest of autumn. Those leave are wonderful compost material, so I won't complain.

Have a wonderful month and Happy Thanksgiving.